Lash Out First
by angel-death-dealer
Summary: Johnny and Frankie dancing together at Sue and Reed's wedding reception...how long can Frankie fight temptation when he knows all the ways to get under her skin?


_**Okay, we all saw the lovely ending with Frankie acting as Johnny's date for the wedding in Japan...I personally loved the bouquet being burnt to smithereens, because that was just so...Johnny. It was perfect! Anyhow, here's what might have happened if, rather than going to stop Italy sinking into the ocean, Sue and Reed actually got a wedding reception...or, more accurately, what might have happened between Johnny and Frankie at this party.**_

**Lash Out First**

Johnny Storm and Frankie Raye...dancing..._together_. A concept that many people never believed they'd actually get to see, figuring that they would either argue and end up dancing with someone else, or that they would have killed each other before the music even started. However, there they were, on the dance floor at a small-scale wedding reception, dancing, together, and for Frankie being the first woman to apparently 'resist' Johnny's charms, they were standing very close to each other.

_I want something  
That's purer than the water  
Like we were_

"Never took you for a dancer, sweetheart." Johnny told her, as he gave her a fancy spin to show off somewhat. Unlike Sue and Reed, who were dancing together at the other side of the dance floor, he couldn't just saw to the music, and do the mushy slow dance stuff. He wouldn't admit that he liked the music, because it was definitely not his usual style, but it did mean that he got to show Frankie some more of his moves.

"You neither." She returned bluntly. "And don't call me sweetheart." She added firmly.

_It's not there now  
Ineloquence and anger  
Are all we have_

"What's your excuse?" He asked.

"My mom enrolled me in dance classes when I was younger." She revealed. "Didn't have much of a choice."

Johnny raised an eyebrow, wondering whether her mother had used dance lessons to try and crush her daughter's love of fighting in the army. "Like 'em?"

"Hated them." She said, with an addition of bitterness added to the first word.

_Like Saturn's rings  
An icy look around me  
Too hard to hold_

"It shows." He said smugly.

"Jerk." She muttered. "What's your excuse?"

He smiled at her, looking very pleased with himself. "If you're gonna charm the ladies, you've gotta know your stuff." He said, as if he were reciting from some well-known document on being a lady-killer. If, during his youth, he had been more inclined to do his schoolwork rather than the actual charming, he might have used his reading and writing skills to actually write the said document, but for him, that would be like sharing his technique. He couldn't do that. Not when his technique would hopefully leave him getting Frankie out of her dress that night.

_Lash out first  
At all the things we don't like  
Or understand_

"So, that really is your call then?" She asked, laughing under her breath as she remembered what she'd read in his profile. "Charming ladies?"

He shrugged. "Might as well play what I'm good at."

_And it's beginning to get to me  
That I know more of the stars and sea  
Than I do of what's in your head  
Barely touching in our cold bed_

"What makes you think you're any good?" She teased him.

"The fact that you say you're not interested in anything about me, but you _still _came to my sister's wedding as my date." He said simply.

Caught out, she shrugged, but Frankie always had a card up her sleeve. "Your sister invited me, and I didn't want to come by myself."

_Are you beginning to get my point?_

_There's always fighting with aching joints_

_It's doing nothing but tire us out_

_No one knows what this fight's about._

"Whatever." He said, not believing her for a second. "You're still here. You could have come with _anyone _else." He spun her again, before pulling her tight up against him. "Maybe there is some feelings in there somewhere."

"I have plenty of feelings." She said simply.

_The answer phone_

_The lonely sound of your voice  
Frozen in time_

"For me?" He tempted.

"Other than annoyance?" She checked.

"You bet."

_I only need  
The compass that you gave me_

_To guide me on_

She shook her head, looking over his shoulder so that she didn't have to look directly at him. "Get over yourself."

"That's a 'yes', then." He decided.

She looked at him, her eyes flashing dangerously. "I didn't say that." She protested.

"Didn't say 'no', either." He pointed out.

_And it's beginning to get to me_

_That I know more of the stars and sea_

_Than I do of what's in your head_

_Barely touching in our cold bed_

She groaned, but regrettably not in the way that he wanted her to. This was out of frustration - towards him. Never mind, he thought, that can be changed. "_God_, you're so full of yourself." She complained.

"It's called _confidence_." He said, puffing his chest out slightly. The only thing this accomplished, however, was bringing them closer together. "You should get some."

"I _have _confidence." She insisted arrogantly.

_Are you beginning to get my point?_

_There's always fighting with aching joints_

_It's doing nothing but tire us out_

_No one knows what this fight's about_

"Maybe in yourself, but not in others." He pointed out.

"What makes you think that?" She asked, not wanting to break under him, but also curious as to what he was leading on to.

_It's so thrilling but also wrong_

_Don't have to prove that you are so strong_

_'Cause I can carry you on my back_

_After our enemies attack_

"The way you're always expecting everyone to let you down."

"I am not." She insisted, too quickly for either of their liking.

"That's why you never get close to people." He continued, as if he hadn't heard her.

"Look, wise guy, you've known me for like...a week." She pointed out hotly. "Don't act like you know me."

Johnny gave her another smug smile, one which only added to her frustration. "That's the beauty of it, Frankie. I don't have to act."

_I tried to tell you before I left_

_But I was screaming under my breath_

_You are the only thing that makes sense_

_Just ignore all this present tense_

"Look-" She started again, but he cut her off this time.

"Maybe you should give some people a chance." He told her.

"_You_?" She asked, getting onto his line of thought and sneering at it, although, secretly, she was wondering why he was talking to her like this.

_We need to feel breathless with love_

_And not collapse under its weight_

_I'm gasping for the air to fill_

_My lungs with everything I've lost_

"I'm not saying that." He told her. "I'm just saying that not everyone's gonna hurt you. It's no good going through your whole life thinking that it's gonna happen like that." He shrugged, looking down into the eyes that weren't wandering the room anymore, but instead, were trained on him. "Of course, if you _were _gonna give me a chance, I wouldn't hurt you." He told her softly.

She stared at him for a moment, and then he noticed the smirk playing on the corner of her lips. "So, there's a sensitive guy underneath the personal profile after all?" She asked him.

_We need to feel breathless with love_

_And not collapse under its weight_

_I'm gasping for the air to fill_

_My lungs with everything I've lost_

Johnny cocked an eyebrow at her, getting out of the slushy, emotional territory he'd used to break her, and getting back onto the seduction game. "Want to find out?" He asked, hoping that she'd give into the temptation pulling at her.

Frankie's head raised, and their lips met, and it wasn't long before they were so far into temptation that it was all they knew.

_And it's beginning to get to me_

_That I know more of the stars and sea_

_Than I do of what's in your head._


End file.
